Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo

by Nigel Rothfels

Overview

Now completely revised! A history of the modern zoo.

In this revised edition of Savages and Beasts, Nigel Rothfels traces the origins of the modern zoo to the efforts of the German entrepreneur Carl Hagenbeck, the most successful dealer in exotic animals in the nineteenth century. Building from his core business in animals, Hagenbeck eventually became even more famous for his large ethnographic exhibitions and circus ventures.

When Hagenbeck opened his Animal Park near Hamburg, Germany, in 1907, he brought together all his business interests in a revolutionary zoological park. He moved wild animals out of their cages and into "natural landscapes" and, in the process, invented a new way of imagining captivity. Through the use of theatrical scenery, the animals and people performing in his ethnographic exhibitions appeared to be living in their native lands. This revised edition addresses ethical concerns about the representation of indigenous peoples and animals and includes a host of new images and photographs.

By examining Hagenbeck's enterprises, Savages and Beasts demonstrates how ideas about the role of zoos and the nature of animal captivity developed in the late nineteenth century. Rothfels provides a much-needed historical perspective on the connections between the development of modern zoos and their colonial histories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421450889
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/04/2025
Series:	Animals, History, Culture
Edition description:	revised edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.71(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nigel Rothfels is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is the author of Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures and the editor of Representing Animals.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Gardens of History
2. Catching Animals
3. Ethnographic Exhibits
4. Paradise
Conclusion
Notes
A Note on Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

Garry Marvin

A lucid, sophisticated, and nuanced account of the role that Carl Hagenbeck played in the history of the public exhibition of animals and people. Nigel Rothfels offers a complex but accessible account of the zoo as a cultural institution that has shaped our ideas about animals. The choice of illustrations is excellent and it should find a wide audience among historians, anthropologists, and general readers interested in the relationship between humans and animals.

— Garry Marvin, University of Surrey Roehampton, author of Zoo Culture

From the Publisher

A lucid, sophisticated, and nuanced account of the role that Carl Hagenbeck played in the history of the public exhibition of animals and people. Nigel Rothfels offers a complex but accessible account of the zoo as a cultural institution that has shaped our ideas about animals. The choice of illustrations is excellent and it should find a wide audience among historians, anthropologists, and general readers interested in the relationship between humans and animals.
—Garry Marvin, University of Surrey Roehampton, author of Zoo Culture

Editorial Reviews

A lucid, sophisticated, and nuanced account of the role that Carl Hagenbeck played in the history of the public exhibition of animals and people. Nigel Rothfels offers a complex but accessible account of the zoo as a cultural institution that has shaped our ideas about animals. The choice of illustrations is excellent and it should find a wide audience among historians, anthropologists, and general readers interested in the relationship between humans and animals.

Garry Marvin

As a contribution to the growing literature on the origins and development of the trade in exotic animals and peoples, historian Rothfels tells the story of Carl Hagenbeck, who initiated the idea of modern zoos, with their naturalistic enclosures rather than cages, outside Hamburg, Germany in the middle 19th century. By the 1870s, his business had spread to the worldwide trade in exotic animals and indigenous peoples. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Rothfels is attuned to the ironies pervading zoos' mediation of people and animals and understands that zoos operate according to entrepreneurial rather than environmental principles . . . The history of human displays conducted under the guise of anthropology and ethnography has been documented before, but never with such a keen sense of connection between these and zoo operations. Rothfels uses the experience of Carl Hagenbeck, a 19th-century animal dealer and a prominent force behind both zoos and human displays, to document the insidious links between the two enterprises: part of the sordid historical legacy that zoos have never confronted, much less expunged.
—Chronicle of Higher Education

Rothfels . . . focuses on the 19th-century origins of modern zoos and the man who made it all happen. Carl Hagenbeck, a German animal dealer and zoo visionary, was the owner of the first zoo without bars, and he invented the use of a moated display and many other now-standard techniques. Savages and Beasts is a fine read, in which good use of picture archives has complemented the writer's extensive documentary research.
—New Scientist

It is Nigel Rothfels' great service to show how Carl Hagenbeck's growing experience in mounting his ethnographic spectacles, and his observation of the public's reception of them, led to ideas culminating in a new kind of zoological park . . . Rothfels has written a genuinely important book for anyone interested in zoos, his perspective is new and convincing.
—International Zoo News

Convincingly argues that the image of Hagenbeck as a modern-day Noah, a great animal lover trying to educate the public about the wonders of nature, belies the basic nature of Hagenbeck's enterprise. That enterprise had very little to do with love for animals, and everything to do with making money. More generally, Rothfels raises questions about past practices of exhibiting animals (and people) and about what zoos of the present are all about.
—Journal of the History of Biology

Important, timely, and stimulating . . . A rich source on so much; Rothfel's account of Hagenbeck's consolidation of the animal trade, for instance, is exemplary, the mobilization of much research into a lucid exposition of overarching trends.
—Anthrozoös

This is much more than a history of Hagenbeck's many successes. It is an historical explanation for why the environments of zoos today are meant to mask the human character of the places in which animals are forced to live their unnatural lives.
—American Historical Review

The book is a good read and provides an interesting historical perspective . . . In short, this is an interesting book; it tells the story of [Carl] Hagenbeck, his peoples and animals from a slightly different perspective.
—Animal Welfare

Rothfels's work elucidates how zoos offer a carefully scripted version of how human beings should understand animals.
—Commonweal

A fascinating if disturbing tale of animal and human display.
—German Studies Review

Savages and Beasts is an excellent book: Rothfels' arguments are subtle and well documented, and complemented by an excellent selection of photographs and illustrations.
—Limina

From the Publisher

A fascinating if disturbing tale of animal and human display.

German Studies Review

Rothfels . . . focuses on the 19th-century origins of modern zoos and the man who made it all happen. Carl Hagenbeck, a German animal dealer and zoo visionary, was the owner of the first zoo without bars, and he invented the use of a moated display and many other now-standard techniques. Savages and Beasts is a fine read, in which good use of picture archives has complemented the writer's extensive documentary research.

New Scientist

This is much more than a history of Hagenbeck's many successes. It is an historical explanation for why the environments of zoos today are meant to mask the human character of the places in which animals are forced to live their unnatural lives.

American Historical Review

Important, timely, and stimulating . . . A rich source on so much; Rothfel's account of Hagenbeck's consolidation of the animal trade, for instance, is exemplary, the mobilization of much research into a lucid exposition of overarching trends.

Anthrozoös

Convincingly argues that the image of Hagenbeck as a modern-day Noah, a great animal lover trying to educate the public about the wonders of nature, belies the basic nature of Hagenbeck's enterprise. That enterprise had very little to do with love for animals, and everything to do with making money. More generally, Rothfels raises questions about past practices of exhibiting animals (and people) and about what zoos of the present are all about.

Journal of the History of Biology

Rothfels's work elucidates how zoos offer a carefully scripted version of how human beings should understand animals.

Commonweal

Rothfels is attuned to the ironies pervading zoos' mediation of people and animals and understands that zoos operate according to entrepreneurial rather than environmental principles . . . The history of human displays conducted under the guise of anthropology and ethnography has been documented before, but never with such a keen sense of connection between these and zoo operations. Rothfels uses the experience of Carl Hagenbeck, a 19th-century animal dealer and a prominent force behind both zoos and human displays, to document the insidious links between the two enterprises: part of the sordid historical legacy that zoos have never confronted, much less expunged.

Chronicle of Higher Education

The book is a good read and provides an interesting historical perspective . . . In short, this is an interesting book; it tells the story of [Carl] Hagenbeck, his peoples and animals from a slightly different perspective.

Animal Welfare

Savages and Beasts is an excellent book: Rothfels' arguments are subtle and well documented, and complemented by an excellent selection of photographs and illustrations.

Limina

It is Nigel Rothfels' great service to show how Carl Hagenbeck's growing experience in mounting his ethnographic spectacles, and his observation of the public's reception of them, led to ideas culminating in a new kind of zoological park . . . Rothfels has written a genuinely important book for anyone interested in zoos, his perspective is new and convincing.

International Zoo News

"Important, timely, and stimulating... A rich source on so much; Rothfel's account of Hagenbeck's consolidation of the animal trade, for instance, is exemplary, the mobilization of much research into a lucid exposition of overarching trends."

Anthrozoös

"Rothfels... focuses on the 19th-century origins of modern zoos and the man who made it all happen. Carl Hagenbeck, a German animal dealer and zoo visionary, was the owner of the first zoo without bars, and he invented the use of a moated display and many other now-standard techniques. Savages and Beasts is a fine read, in which good use of picture archives has complemented the writer's extensive documentary research."

New Scientist

Important, timely, and stimulating... A rich source on so much; Rothfel's account of Hagenbeck's consolidation of the animal trade, for instance, is exemplary, the mobilization of much research into a lucid exposition of overarching trends.

Anthrozoos